Project Planning & Estimating – Are we there yet? Deb Smith Mayo Clinic, Enterprise Portfolio Management Office (EPMO)

Introduction Education Employment/Experience MS in Project Mgmt from SMU of MN October 2006 Undergrad in Electrical & Computer Engineering from University of Michigan Employment/Experience Mayo Clinic Enterprise Portfolio Management Office, Sr. Project Consultant Adjunct Professor Saint Mary’s University MS Project Mgmt since 2006 Project/Portfolio Manager 8 yrs (Mayo) IT Project Manager 15 yrs (IBM & Mayo) PMI Certified PMP 25 February 2002

Discussion Overview Project Life Cycle Estimating Projects What Makes Projects Different “Adjust the use and rigor” Questions and Comments

What is a project? Organized set of work efforts. Progressively elaborated Limited by time and resources Have a defined beginning and ending Project – “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.” PMBOK® Guide

Mayo Enterprise Standard What is a Project? It is a temporary endeavor with specific start and end dates that can answer “yes” to one or more of the following questions: Does the activity require independent approval? Does the activity require specific funding and have separate budget? (e.g. Capital and/or operational expenses) Is there a specific team focused on this activity outside of normal operations? Can this activity be implemented independently of other activities? Does this activity require more than 20 person hours? (this may be of IT Infrastructure and/or combined resource effort - still working this out) This is Mayo’s definition of a project; does your organization have one? What is it?

Project Life Cycle Stages/Process Groups Initiating — when a project is proposed, planned at a high level, and key participants commit to it in broad terms Planning — starts after the initial commitment, includes detailed planning, and ends when all stakeholders accept the entire detailed plan Executing — includes authorizing, executing, monitoring, and controlling work until the customer accepts the project deliverables Closing — all activities after customer acceptance to ensure project is completed, lessons are learned, resources are reassigned, and contributions are recognized. Planning Monitor and Control Majority of PMs time is spent in planning

Project Life Cycle Stages Project Manager

Start Developing the Project Plan Questions Documentation What is to be done? Scope definition document Why should we do it? Business case or rationale How should we do it? Strategy & Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) In what sequence? Network Diagram Where should work be done? Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS) When should work be done? Schedule Plan Who should do the work? Resource Utilization Plan How much will it cost? Cost Plan or Budget Plan How do we judge process? Milestone Plan or Earned Value (EV) Plan Who is the client and the team? What is the work to be done? What timeframe? What cost? What is the quality? What are the stakeholder expectations? Where is the team? Are we global resourcing and what about procurement? When is each task due? How will it get done? How will it get paid for ? How is the project plan going to be developed? Who, What, When, Where, & How

Mayo Enterprise Standard Use as a checklist… may not need all the documentation; but you do need to think about all of these things!

Project Management Project management includes work processes that initiate, plan, execute, and close work Work processes require tradeoffs among the scope, quality, cost, and schedule of the project PM includes administrative tasks for planning, documenting, and controlling work PM includes leadership tasks for visioning, motivating, and promoting work associates. Projects are most effectively managed with one person being assigned accountability Project managers negotiate with functional managers A project manager needs to develop strong communication and leadership skills in order to persuade subordinates to focus on the project when other work also beckons.

Estimating Projects

How to Estimate Have the right people make the estimate Use history and experience as guide The smaller the unit of work being estimated the better the estimate Bottom-up approach best – most costly Effort-based activities may be compressed by adding staff The “mythical man month” Some people tend to estimate optimistically. Keep in mind: Actual productive time (~ 80%) Learning curves/Rework Competing priorities and dependencies not available on time (Document the assumptions and approach) Emergencies/illness/Vacation Do not pad the numbers This is more an FYI but can be a whole course in and of itself! The point is to make the team aware that there is a science to estimating (grand formulas in some cases), but a couple reminders will go a long way in keeping them out of trouble. The right people are usually those who are actually going to do the work or… The right people may be those that have done this task in the past or at another agency A more accurate sizing comes from starting with the duration at the most detailed level and rolling it up, as opposed to saying this goal should take xx days or weeks. Sometimes there is not enough information on the details when you do the sizing, so that then becomes a risk and we’ll talk about that next! Do not pad as the project may not get approved if the estimate is too high or if money/resources are allocated where they are not needed it is taking away from other valuable projects. Document, document, document your approach and assumptions right along side your estimate.

10 Tips for Increasing Estimating Accuracy Create and use planning documents Identify assumptions and constraints Simplify Prioritize deliverables Use complexity factor Manage “iron triangle” Track actuals Modify plans/forecasting Use lessons learned Use more than one method to arrive at an estimate COST Quality TIME SCOPE Maintain an ongoing "actual hours" database of the recorded time spent on each aspect of your projects. Use the data to help estimate future projects and identify the historically accurate buffer time needed to realistically perform the work. Create and use planning documents, such as specifications and project plans. Perform a detailed task analysis of the work to be performed. Use a "complexity factor" as a multiplier to determine whether a pending project is more or less complex than a previous one. Use more than one method to arrive at an estimate, and look for a midpoint among all of them. Identify a set of caveats, constraints, and assumptions to accompany your calculations, which would bound the conditions under which your estimates would be meaningful. (Anything that occurs outside of those constraints would be considered out of scope.) If the proposed budget or schedule seems inadequate to do the work, propose adjusting upward or downward one or more of the four project scoping criteria: cost, schedule, quality, and features. Consider simpler or more efficient ways to organise and perform the work. Plan and estimate the project rollout from the very beginning so that the rollout won't become a chaotic scramble at the end. For instance, you could propose using a minimally disruptive approach, such as a pilot programme or a phased implementation. In really nebulous situations, consider a phase-based approach, where the first phase focuses primarily on requirements gathering and estimating. Develop contingency plans by prioritising the deliverables right from the start into "must-have" and "nice-to-have" categories. Refer to your lessons-learned database for "20:20 foresight" on new projects, and incorporate your best practices into future estimates.

Ensure success of each team member Consider partial time allocation Determine collision or collaboration points Develop efficient ways to organize and perform the work

What Makes Projects Different?

What Makes Projects Different? Projects vs. operations Large or Small Complex or Simple Process Improvement or Product Development Waterfall or Iterative Approach Projects are temporary Projects have both routine and unique characteristics Operations consist of the ongoing work needed to ensure that an organization continues to function effectively

Projects vs. Operations Q: When is maintenance a project? A: When it is a temporary endeavor that delivers a unique product, service, or result.

Size and Complexity

Product or Process Improvement

Waterfall vs. Iterative Plan Driven Adaptive

Agile Project Management Organize the project into short iterations Only plan in detail for nearby tasks. PM emphasis is moved from planning to execution Project planning and definition focus will shift to supporting decisions during project execution instead of up front in planning. Analogy: Project Manager is “surfing the rolling wave!”

Adjust the Use and Rigor

Project Mgmt Plan - How Scope Mgmt Plan Schedule Mgmt Plan Cost Mgmt Plan Quality Mgmt Plan Staffing/Resource Mgmt Plan Communication Mgmt Plan Risk Mgmt Plan Stakeholders = Who is the client and the team? Scope = What is the work to be done? Project Management Plan = How will the project be executed, monitored, and controlled How will it get paid for ? How is the project plan going to be developed? How will it get done? -- What timeframe? -- What cost? -- What is the quality? -- What are the stakeholder expectations? -- Where is the team? Are we global resourcing and what about procurement? -- When is each task due?

How much is too much? What is your ratio of documentation to deliverables? What is the percentage of time spent on planning vs. execution? How many different groups/organizations must be coordinated? Has this been done before? Are there critical resource constraints? What documentation do you need to get funding? If you are managing a 6 month project it doesn’t make sense to spend a month on planning… unless the project could jeopardize human safety… unfortunately, there is no formula, or tried and true way to define what should be done when. Project Management is both an art and a science… the science is the data gathering, monitoring, controlling, organizing, etc… part of the art of PM is knowing when to use what tools or documents. If in doubt, ask someone. Get a coach/mentor… be a coach/mentor… Again this is part art; part science… most folks say 10 to 20% of time/cost is spent planning… if you’re at 50% then you should rethink it The more communicatin and collaboration that is necessary… the more complex the project will be and the more planning you will need. Does someone have a tried and true template you can use: Can only one person do the job? Is that person in high demand on other projects? How was your project prioritized compared to others? What do you have to submit to get funded?

Minimum Required Formal Documents Project Charter Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Communication Plan Risk Identification and Owners Status Report Charter defines and legitimizes the project; it gives the PM authority to manage. WBS defines the work that must be done. It is derived from the scope statement and is developed to the work package level. The schedule and resource assignments are derived from it. Communication plan defines what information about the project gets communicated to whom. It can be status, issues, working sessions, etc. It also should point to an organizational change mgmt plan if one is needed. Collaboration is much more than communications; it involves interaction to produce some 'joint' result. Collaboration integrates your ideas and mine into a whole All risks must be identified at the very least… and owners need to be assigned to them to ensure that they are monitored. Doesn’t do any good to identify them if you just put it on shelf and don’t manage them. Status Reports are usually required by management and inform everyone of the progress of the project. They should be easy to read; one page, at-a-glance reports that can drilled down into if deemed necessary by managers or stakeholders.

Find out if your organization has a recommendation for project documentation. e.g. Mayo’s recommendation…

Plan the work! Work the plan! NET: Failing to plan is planning to fail

Questions, Comments, Suggestions